Maybe it was Mo Dioubate‘s return for the Wildcats, maybe it was Kentucky‘s desperation as it fought for its first name-brand victory of the season, maybe it was because they had no other choice with the offense nothing short of a disaster right now. All of the above? A little bit of everything? Whatever it was, that second-half fight in the team’s 12-point win vs. Indiana was something special, winning with grit and toughness after their want-to had been questioned.

They shot just 38 percent from the field, 20 percent from three and 66 percent at the line, but controlled the game late while holding the Hoosiers to just 34 percent overall and 17 percent from deep. Defensive execution and effort were excellent as the Wildcats made winning play after winning play, diving for loose balls and going 1-on-5 for offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities.

Now, Mark Pope doesn’t want his team to live in this territory forever — he still believes Kentucky will end up being a ‘really dangerous’ shooting team, despite sitting at No. 243 nationally in 3-point percentage. Until they get things figured out, though, the second-year coach likes proving this group can win in other ways, if necessary.

“Yes, I think we can win games when we have that type of commitment to our team and that type of grit,” Pope said. “It’s not the way we want to have to win every game, but certainly I think that that’s something we should be able to fall back on. There’s a big-time safety net for us in terms of just playing every possession with all the passion we have.”

He expects the Wildcats to shoot better than the 3-15 mark they finished with against the Hoosiers when they travel down to Atlanta to take on Rick Pitino and St. John’s, but knowing how the Red Storm play, it might be another toughest-man-wins kind of day at State Farm Arena.

And he’s got a name for that kind of on-court product, sacrificing beauty for some necessary grime — winning in the mud, if you will.

“It’s smash mouth basketball,” Pope said Thursday. “I think it’s gonna be really fun and ugly and gruesome and brutal and violent. It’s awesome. It’s great. It won’t be (that style) forever; it’s just for now. Just for now.”

Part of it is Kentucky’s obvious (and hopefully temporary) offensive struggles. Part of it is St. John’s, coached by Rick Pitino, playing in the Big East.

You may remember what Ed Cooley said about that following Georgetown’s exhibition win over the Wildcats back in October.

“I thought our ball pressure really bothered them, and I thought the physicality of the game played into what I call Big East basketball,” he said at the time.

Expect more of the same against the Johnnies — and Pope says he’ll be ready for that, while also preparing for the unknown that could be either team catching fire at the right time (or wrong, if it happens to be Pitino’s group).

“I think there will be some of that, for sure,” he said of St. John’s. “Just looking at the personnel on the court, I think it’ll be — I think we probably have two teams that have really, really high ceilings that haven’t totally found them yet. I think you have two teams that can, at any given moment, be incredibly explosive.

“But I think at the heart of it, there’s gonna be a lot of physicality in the game. It should be really fun. It’s gonna be a great game.”

Pope hopes his Wildcats wake up in Atlanta feeling red-hot and knock down a million 3-pointers, winning in the clouds rather than the mud. Again, he’s confident they’ll get there at some point.

Whatever it takes to win this game, though, Kentucky needs to be ready for the moment. After the slow start to the season, this group needs a feel-good victory going into the holidays and the SEC schedule.

Throw it all against the wall and leave the city with more points than the Johnnies — it doesn’t matter how it looks.

“It’s important for all of our guys, and it should be fun. It should be fun. It should be violent and vicious and fun,” Pope said. “We get to do a lot of work in the trenches. There’s also going to be a tremendous pace to this game, there will be a whole lot of pace. I think both teams are going to make shots in this game, too, so it’s going to be the whole thing.

“But the heart of it, this confrontational spirit of the game, will be really fun.”